


Whisper Grass

by Dan_Francisco



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1930s, Drama, Dust Bowl, Gen, Great Depression, Mystery, Post Traumatic Bowl Disorder, questionable actions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-23 02:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23004349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dan_Francisco/pseuds/Dan_Francisco
Summary: In Arcadia Bay, Texas, Max Caulfield lives a relatively normal life on her parent’s ranch.  However, strange dreams haunt her at night, telling of a massive black cloud heading for her home and turning day into night. When three dangerous outlaws roll into town, relaying stories of the storms that plague Oklahoma, she and her best friend Chloe decide they have to find out what’s going on.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9
Collections: /r/FanFiction Prompt Challenge #17 / March 2020, Fanworks Club Monthly Prompts





	Whisper Grass

**Author's Note:**

> Double promptfill! First for the crossover challenge on r/fanfic (Overwatch and Life is Strange, of course) and monthly prompts from the Fanworks Discord (Cowboy, Questionable Actions, Dustbowl and Mystery).

The world looked black, darker than any night Max ever knew. Howling winds combined with an assault to her own face as dust, kicked up by an impossible storm, buffeted her as she tried to make it home. Something had happened, she knew that much – the raging chaos around her was unchecked, and she could scarcely see five feet in front of her. Max held her arm up to her face, but found that this did little to combat the swirling dust around her. She coughed, nearly stumbling into the ground as her hat fell off her head and was spirited away by the coming storm. Her dress was covered in flecks of dirt and dust by this point, marring the pastel blue cloth it was woven from. Just barely peeking out from the haze of the storm, Max saw Arcadia Bay’s lighthouse. Maybe she could take shelter there from the wind, save herself – and her dress – from further catastrophe. Max tried her best to head towards it, braving the wind and harassing storm, secretly hoping that someone, _anyone_ at all was there.

Instead, when she managed to just approach the bottom of the lighthouse, she saw it break apart, falling on top of her.

* * *

Max Caulfield awoke with a start, her covers flying off as she suddenly jolted herself awake. Her heart raced, as if she had just run for days on end without rest. She had not been caught in a dust storm of unheard of proportions, nor was she trapped underneath a pile of rubble – Max was at home, safe in her bed, having managed to oversleep on Saturday. Dad was undoubtedly in the living room, listening to the news and music that just barely crept under her door. What time was it? She couldn’t tell – probably far too late to plead for forgiveness, as late as she had woken up. Max groaned, sliding off the bed as sunlight poured into her room from the window. Another day, another dusty afternoon in good old Arcadia Bay, Texas. The grassy fields she knew well stood stoic as far as the eye could see, with the only change being the fence that divided her family’s property from the next plot over. The grass was dry, a sickly brown this year. Dad always muttered something about the rain being “bad.” All Max knew was that it hadn’t rained for months, and it was making the entire area look even more dead than it was before.

With a heavy sigh, Max got out of bed and began to dress herself, slightly unnerved that she had unconsciously chosen the same dress that she wore in her dream. Well, the skies were clear, blue for what felt like an endless stretch of distance. Not even thin clouds could disturb the sky. Now dressed, Max walked out to the living room, where Dad sat in his chair with his nose buried in today’s paper. Mom was already in the kitchen, no doubt preparing something for lunch or a late breakfast.

“Oh, you’re up,” Dad said as she walked in, snapping his paper back upright. “Good. Was wondering about you.”

“Morning, Dad.”

Dad’s mouth danced around as he chewed on a piece of tobacco, before he spat out the unwanted juices into a nearby pot he kept just for this purpose. “Morning.”

Max nodded. “Do you mind if I go into town, see Chloe?”

“Be back before five!” Mom yelled from the kitchen.

“I always am, Mom!” Max called back.

Dad shook his head, focusing back on the paper. “You know I don’t like you hanging around that Price girl. She’s gonna get herself in trouble one of these days, I just know it.”

“Oh, Ryan, leave her be,” Mom said, wiping flour off her apron as she headed in. “Go on, Maxine, go have fun with your friends. Lord knows some day you’ll run out of time with them.”

Max cringed a little – she hated being called Maxine, but Mom and Dad were always sticklers for that anyway. She nodded and smiled anyway, silently thanking Mom for giving her an easy out. Through the door, Max entered the world she had seen ever since she was born here in Texas. The same plains, the same dusty buildings, the same distant lighthouse that Max wondered ever did anything.

The same Arcadia Bay.

It felt like Arcadia Bay was shrinking, contracting on itself as 1933 turned to 1934 and the rain and money began to slow to a mere trickle. Max didn’t have to be too book smart to know that when prices went up from a nickel to a dime, nobody was in good shape. She knew it was bad, that the economy, as nebulous as it was, was just getting worse. Maybe if she could get her life in photography off the ground, get hired taking pictures for the government, then she could finally get out of here.

The walk to Chloe’s house, nestled in one of Arcadia Bay’s little neighborhoods, was just as easy as she remembered it. Not much had changed, but the more Max got herself involved in trying out this photography business, the more she and Chloe grew apart. By the time Max and Chloe had found real time to talk to each other again, Chloe had completely changed. Five years ago, Chloe’s dad had died in a traffic accident, and it seemed like it had just shattered everything about Chloe. Max never knew Chloe to be much to stick to trends before, but after 1928, Chloe completely turned her life around and Max wasn’t sure if it was always for the better.

Max headed up to Chloe’s front door, knocking on it lightly. She could hear shouting from inside, but truth be told Max couldn’t figure out who was yelling at who. If she knew anything about Chloe, though, she was probably yelling at her step-father, David. He was a Great War veteran who kept the house under strict control, if what Chloe said was true. Chloe herself soon appeared, swinging the door open. She wore pants and a striped shirt, smiling wide when she saw Max standing there. “Oh man, I’m so glad you dropped by,” Chloe said, immediately wrapping her up in a hug and dragging her inside.

David sauntered into the foyer, furrowing his brow when he saw Max. “Don’t think that because your little friend is here, that means you can just walk away, missy!”

“You do what you want, David,” Chloe yelled. “I ain’t hanging around here just to listen to you criticize, criticize, criticize!”

Chloe reached past him, snatching up her keys from a nearby stand. This seemed to just enrage David, turning his face beet red as anger fueled his tone. “And just where the _hell_ do you think you’re going?!”

“Anywhere but here!” Chloe shouted. “I’m going to go into town with Max, alright?! Or do I have to submit a written request for leave?”

David seethed, before shaking his head and turning away. “Fine, but this talk ain’t over! I expect to see you back at 1700 hours on the dot!”

Muttering something under her breath, Chloe headed outside with Max, letting the door slam shut behind her. The keys to her truck jingled in her hands as she rolled her eyes, gesturing for Max to follow her.

“So, where _are_ we going?” Max asked, jumping into Chloe’s old truck. The wooden bed had seen much better years, judging by the wood rot that consumed it, and the paint on the cab was chipped and flaking in too many areas to count, revealing bare gray steel underneath the apple red exterior.

“Like I said,” Chloe replied, starting the engine. “Anywhere but here. Step-douche is on the warpath, and I’m staying away.”

“What’s his deal this time?” Max asked.

As she turned out of the yard that she had parked in, Chloe scoffed. Her strawberry blond hair fell by the wayside, not at all styled like Max usually did. “He found the Marxist stuff I borrowed from Trevor. He was raving about it pretty much every which way but sideways, and I just… I don’t want to deal with it.”

“What do you mean, Marxist stuff?” Max asked, blinking as they headed into town. The same parts of Arcadia Bay still stood, from the Two Whales diner that Chloe’s mom, Joyce, worked at to the town hall run by Mayor Wells. The same groups of people beat the same pavement day after day, in the same fashion and same ritual hour in and hour out. The only real change was that David had somehow been elected as town sheriff, a job he took with a zealotry that Max didn’t remember anybody else having.

“I don’t know, just… books and stuff. I’m just reading up on it, you know? The papers keep talking about the Communists in China and all that, and I read in one of my dad’s books about how there were Reds blowing things up _here,_ at _home,_ and I… I don’t know, I wanted to know why.”

Max hummed in understanding, not really sure if she actually understood. Chloe didn’t seem much like she wanted to talk, and slowly, the sound of the engine and the wind blowing past them overwhelmed whatever muted murmurs of conversation started up. Eventually, they arrived in town, where Chloe pulled the truck over and parked. The Two Whales was open by now, and since both Chloe and Max were feeling hungry, they decided to head on in and grab something to eat.

Immediately upon walking in, Max was met by the smells of the same restaurant she had known and loved for years. Mom and Dad didn’t often take her here lately, mostly because of the economy wrecking ideas of eating out, but Max still loved eating here. The cheesecake had been a favorite of hers ever since she was a kid, and though it was getting more and more expensive each day, today felt like a good day to splurge on it. Joyce met them at the door almost immediately, gladly showing them to a table and promising to wait on them in a moment.

And yet, for all the good this was doing, Max couldn’t help but get the visions of the dust storm approaching Arcadia Bay out of her head. The memories of that dream came back in force, and she couldn’t shake the feeling of doom out of her head.

“Hey, Max,” Chloe said, waving a hand in front of her face. When Max blinked, Chloe looked incredibly concerned, like she was afraid something had happened to her. “Are you alright?”

“Y-yeah,” Max muttered. “Sorry, I… had a really weird dream last night. I guess it’s still affecting me.”

Chloe arched an eyebrow. “Uh… alright. Do you… want to talk about it?”

She paused, before quite unintentionally letting loose every part of the anxiety-ridden dream that had plagued her the night before. Chloe listened quietly and respectfully, with the only pause coming when Joyce came to take their order. Just sandwiches for them today, Chloe with an egg and bacon ensemble while Max went with a classic BLT. Throughout it all, Chloe asked a handful of probing questions, like what was coming, when it felt like it was going to happen, all of it. At the end of Max’s retelling of the nightmare, Chloe rubbed her chin, deep in thought.

“Well?” Max asked. “What do you think it means?”

Chloe shrugged, shaking her head. “I don’t know. Uh… you had a bad dream? I mean, it’s not like-”

With a slam and a shudder, three people walked into the Two Whales Diner. They weren’t people Max knew, decidedly not local. Their black clothes and hard-set eyes unsettled Max long before she even heard them speak. The tall man in the back had small, beady eyes, with mutton chops defining his jaw, his striped shirt and black vest looking like it was barely able to contain his muscles. Another man wore a wide-brimmed hat, almost like a cowboy, with large boots that had spurs and a black leather jacket that covered the blue jeans, covered with soot and dirt from a rough life on the road. Meanwhile, the woman who looked like she was in charge had stark white hair, an equally wide-brimmed hat covering her head, with a vest and tie combo that was at odds with the rifle on her back. Max just now realized _all_ of them were armed, with a gun hanging off the shorter man’s hip and a shotgun strapped to the biggest man of all.

“Y’all got a barkeeper around here?” the clean-shaven man called. “We could use some drinks.”

The local bartender, Jerry, shrugged and offered them seats at the bar. The three sat down, suspiciously eyeing anyone and everyone around with looks that made Max shudder at the thought. Who _were_ these people?

“Long day on the road?” Jerry asked, pouring drinks after the trio had ordered. “Y’all look a bit weary.”

“Yeah,” the woman said, stretching out her back. “Came down from Oklahoma. Dust storm’s are taking everything, figured we’d run off to the coast for a spell.”

The clean-shaven man looked over, glaring at the woman. “Ashe, we don’t owe them nothing. Ain’t gotta tell our life’s story.”

“Save it, McCree. These people are being awful _nice_ to us, after all.”

Max stopped paying attention to their conversation, staring at Chloe. She had to have heard it. _Dust storms._ If there were dust storms in Oklahoma, then they might reach to Texas, right? Down to here? But… if they had come from Oklahoma, that was a _long_ way away. Right? The panic in Max’s heart grew, as she began breathing rapidly, barely even pausing between breaths. The shocked look on Chloe’s face was as apparent as the anxiety that was consuming Max. Sensing trouble, Chloe hastily paid for their food, leaving three dollars on the table for the entire ensemble and dragging Max outside, away from the strange people and their dust storms.

Chloe pulled Max into the alley next to the diner, gripping her shoulders as Max tried to get a hold of herself. So far, it wasn’t working. Max could see Chloe saying things, her mouth moving in random sputters, but the words sounded muffled, like she was underwater and Chloe was a thousand miles away.

“Max!” Chloe said. It sounded so loud, the mere mention of her own name made Max jump nearly out of her skin, blinking about as rapidly as she was breathing. “Max, are you okay?”

“I don’t think I am,” Max muttered. “I…”

Just like before, when she had her dream, Max looked to the skies to see a massive dust wall approaching. The skies darkened, just like in her dream. Howling winds and panicked, confused yelling filled the air as people began to react to the madness. _No, not again._ Max couldn’t do this again.

“Max, what’s going on?” Chloe asked. As the sand and dirt combined to make seeing more than a few feet in front of them impossible, Max and Chloe tried to find a way to shelter. Before she could lead Chloe back into the Two Whales, Max turned around just to watch Chloe fly away, picked up by the storm to slip to the unknown.

* * *

She jumped again, finding herself… _right back at the Two Whales?_ What was going on? Max widened her eyes in panic, trying to find some way to ground herself in reality. Was this reality? Was she going insane? Max couldn’t tell anymore, and that terrified her.

“So, what are you thinking of getting?” Chloe asked. “I’m thinking egg and bacon sandwich.”

It dawned on Max that she had had this conversation before. This was the exact same conversation she had just before the strange people arrived, and the dust storm hit. Her blank face gave Chloe pause, since she did _the exact same thing_ she did last time and waved a hand in front of Max’s face.

“Hey, Max. Are you alright?”

“No,” Max replied immediately. “I… we had this conversation before.”

Chloe stared back at her, mouth agape as the menu fell limp in her hands. “Um… I’m pretty sure we didn’t, since… we just got here.”

Max groaned, trying to calm herself as her breaths became shaky and uneven with each heave. This wasn’t right. This couldn’t be happening. “No, you don’t get it. I… I keep having these visions of a storm coming for Arcadia Bay.”

“Well, good, I mean, there hasn’t been rain for like, months.”

“ _You don’t get it,”_ Max said. “Not a regular storm. A dust storm. It comes and… just… buries everything, every _one._ Nobody survives, and… I watched you get carried off into it.”

Chloe put the menu down for good, giving Max a concerned look. “Okay, you’re… _really_ scaring me, Max. Are you sure everything’s okay?”

“Okay, if you don’t believe me, then how’s about this. In about five minutes, three people are going to walk through that door.”

Chloe looked unconvinced, arching an eyebrow. She turned her palms up, shrugging. “Okay, and? That’s… not really groundbreaking.”

“They’re people nobody knows, they’re going to come in, guns on their backs, and tell the bartender they came from Oklahoma.”

“Oklahoma,” Chloe repeated, sounding entirely skeptical of the entire affair. “Alright, uh, then we’ll wait for five minutes, I suppose. We’ll see if your little theory tests out.”

Chloe leaned back after ordered her lunch from Joyce, this time with no food for Max – she couldn’t stomach the thought of eating in case she turned out to be right. Chloe kept a sharp eye on the door, flicking between it and Max as she waited. Occasionally, they both glanced at the clock, watching the seconds tick by until finally, Max’s guess of five minutes was up, and nobody arrived.

“Okay, so, uh, nice prank, Max,” Chloe said, leaning against the table. “Maybe next time-”

With a slam and a shudder, three people walked into the diner. It was… Ashe, was it? And McCree? Either way, it was the same people, wearing the same outfits, with the same weapons.

“Y’all got a barkeeper around here?” the clean-shaven man said. This might have been McCree. “We could use some drinks.”

Just like before, Jerry offered them seats, where they ordered the same drinks and waited for them to come. “Long day on the road?” Jerry asked. “Y’all look a bit weary.”

It was the same conversation. The woman, Ashe, told them they came from Oklahoma. McCree complained, Ashe chastised him. Max swallowed her fear and ran out from Two Whales, rushing outside and praying to God that she didn’t see a darkened sky or rolling dust thundering her way. Chloe soon followed, calling for Max as she went.

When she arrived outside, Max collapsed. Not because she had been so horribly right, but because she was wrong this time. The skies were clear, and remained that way even after Max was sure that the time it had taken for the storm to arrive the first time had passed. This was no longer coincidence. This was _real life._ Somehow, some way, a storm was coming for Arcadia Bay, and Max felt increasingly helpless against it. Wordlessly, Chloe wrapped her arms around Max, doing her level best to comfort her.

* * *

Chloe had whisked Max back to her house, now with David absent. He mus have gone on patrol, walking Arcadia Bay and seeking out troublemakers and ne’er-do-wells. Max hid herself in the corner of Chloe’s room, where the dull green wallpaper blended with oak molding on the floor, separating it from dark brown hardwood. It had been years since Max had seen the inside of Chloe’s room, but it didn’t seem like it had changed all that much in the years since. Chloe did her best to calm Max down, but what could be done? Max had just lived a literal nightmare twice in the span of six hours. To say it shook her to her core was an understatement.

“So, uh… I guess it’s pretty real, huh?” Chloe finally said. She had crossed her legs Indian-style on her bed, waiting for Max to say something, _anything_ in the interim.

“Y-yeah,” Max muttered. How could she even begin to explain this? It was like trying to describe colors to somebody who was blind.

The room was silent, with the occasional thundering of a distant freight train. Arcadia Bay’s tracks were almost always abuzz with the sound of trains, and sometimes the distant smoke stacks were the only indication that anything around the area even moved around. Max couldn’t help but remember when Mom and Dad had taken her to Corpus Christi on the train, waiting at the station for the train to arrive with a wheezing blow.

Back then, it felt like the only thing that could let her leave Arcadia Bay for good.

“Do you want me to, uh, change the subject?” Chloe asked, a sympathetic look coming Max’s way. She could only nod in response. Maybe it’d do her some good to get out of this room, get some fresh air, maybe?

“I think maybe we should go somewhere else,” she muttered. “I don’t know, I’m… all sorts of scatterbrained right now, I think.”

“Yeah, sure,” Chloe said, picking her keys up. Max glanced at the clock in the hallway as they headed outside. They’d somehow been there for nearly an hour. Had it really taken that long for Max to find peace within herself? She shook it off, following Chloe back out to her truck, where she took the pair to American Rust Junkyard, a place where all things metal went to die. The husks of forgotten cars, tractors, and whatever other pieces of junk lay scattered about like a memorial to the new year and new hopes for the future, only to be tossed aside and abandoned.

“Welcome to home away from home,” Chloe said, gesturing grandly to the decrepit lot. “Rachel and I used to come here all the time. I think our hideout’s still around here somewhere.”

 _Rachel._ It was a name she hadn’t often heard. Not anymore, at least. Last year, Rachel had gone missing from Arcadia Bay, lost to the world even as Chloe waged a one-woman war to find her. A lot of people thought she had run away, but Chloe and Rachel’s parents had never given up hope, not even after all this time. “Wow, I… I haven’t heard of her in a while.”

“Yeah. Everyone thinks she ran away. She wouldn’t do that, though,” Chloe said, kicking over a can. “Not without me.”

“What do you mean?”

Chloe shrugged, wandering around the piles and wrecks. “We were gonna get out of here, go to Houston and live out the rest of our lives there. She really grounded me for a while.”

A wind blew across the junkyard, chilling Max even though it had to be at least seventy degrees. Something about the weather, every little strange experience and the bizarre feeling that haunted her was sending her anxiety into overdrive, like there was a cloud hanging over her. Chloe tried her best to cheer her up as they wandered around the place, but truth be told Max couldn’t shake the feelings of dread. A train passed by them on the tracks as they wandered around, the heavy box cars shuddering and clanking as they rolled over the tracks.

“Hey, Max, so… now that you have time powers, what are you going to do with them?”

“What do you mean?”

Balancing on a piece of wood that bridged a gap between two cars, Chloe almost tried to leap across a gap before she thought better of it. Defeated, she turned around and headed back, keeping her arms out for balance. “Well, you were able to predict that whole arrival thing. So… what do you plan on doing with it?”

“I don’t know,” Max confessed. “I… I feel like I’m connected to this dust storm. I feel that if I don’t find some way to stop it, then… well, then we’re all doomed.”

Chloe nodded, impressed as the tail end of the train rolled away, the caboose trailing off until it became nothing. “That’s fair, I guess. I don’t know, I just thought you might like, fight crime or something. You know, like in those penny novels.”

“I don’t know how long I’m going to have this,” Max said, laughing. “I don’t think I can afford to abuse it.”

“You can barely afford _anything_ these days,” Chloe pointed out. “Sorry, bad joke. But you know what I mean.”

Max shrugged, following Chloe along as they kept meandering through the junkyard. It felt like a mixture of emotions were clouding her judgment right now, from grim determination to find a way to stop the storm to overwhelming nervousness that threatened to drown her dry.

Behind them, something snapped and broke. Max and Chloe whipped around, trying to find the source of the noise. From behind a set of broken cars emerged Ashe and McCree, along with the third man Max had seen in the Two Whales. McCree kept his hand hovering over his holstered gun, while the big man stared at them with cold intent. Only Ashe seemed to be _trying_ to be approachable.

“Hey, we heard a rumor y’all knew a Rachel Amber,” Ashe said, a cool, relaxed look on her face.

“What do you want with her?” Chloe asked, tension in her voice. Max had to admit she was thinking the same. What _did_ they want with Rachel?

Narrowing his eyes, McCree wiggled the cigar in his mouth around. “None a’ your business. Did y’know her or not?”

“I did,” Chloe replied. She folded her arms, staring back at them as they apparently sized her up. “So what do you want with her?”

McCree clenched his teeth, taking a bold step forward before Ashe stopped him, holding him back with an outstretched arm. “We just wanna _talk_ to her. Know where we can find her?”

“Nope. She’s been missing, haven’t you heard?”

Ashe smirked, chuckling. “Yeah, that seems to be the answer we get. Well, if y’all think of something… let us know. We’ll be in town for a while.”

Without another word, but definitely with parting looks from McCree and the large man, the trio left, leaving Chloe and Max just as quickly as they had arrived.

“That was weird,” Max said quietly once she was sure they were out of earshot.

“Yeah,” Chloe muttered. Suddenly, she paused, turning to face Max with an intense look in her eyes. “Hey, so… this is kind of a long shot, but…”

“But what?”

“I just remembered. Before she left, Rachel said… a _lot_ of really similar things that you’re saying now. I mean, we’re talking creepy similar. Stuff about a storm coming, how she felt connected to it… that was all before she went missing.”

Max blinked, confused. “So, wait, you think…”

“I think that whatever’s going on, Rachel might know something.”

“But how are we supposed to find her?” Max asked, furrowing her brow. If she wasn’t here… well, then where could she be? “I mean, those people are looking for her, too. They have _guns,_ Chloe.”

“I know, I know, just… look, it’ll be alright.” She sighed, looking around before sighing again and putting a hand on her forehead. “Maybe we should just… sleep it off, I guess. We can figure stuff out later. Alright?”

Max let out a weary sigh, already not thrilled with this idea. “Alright. Can you take me back to my house? I don’t know if I can get back before five by walking.”

Chloe smiled, nodding. “Yeah, sure thing. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

* * *

Max was haunted by even more dreams of the storm overnight. In these, little could be done to save Arcadia Bay from the approaching storm, and in each one Chloe was taken away by the storm in a massive whirlwind that Max could never rescue her from. Sometimes, Max found herself in a building, watching the black dust spill and slip in between the windows and doors before it flooded the entire house, burying her family and friends inside with no way out. She woke up the next morning in a cold sweat, unable to calm her beating heart. Not even the music she clung to could calm her down, try as she might to find a way to dance the pain away.

Chloe picked her up early, despite Dad’s protests, and together they headed downtown to see if they could track down Ashe and McCree. Chloe claimed that she had figured out that they had a lead, and if they followed them and overtook them last minute, they could get to Rachel before Ashe and McCree could. At least, that was Chloe’s working theory. Whether that was where they’d find themselves in reality was a different question. Besides, Chloe said, Max could always just rewind time and let her know what was up. _A perfect system,_ she boasted.

Deep inside, Max wasn’t sure if it was as cracked up as it was meant to be.

“So, who are these guys anyway?” Max asked as they followed the trio.

“Step-douche says that they’re part of the Deadlock Gang. Told me they’re criminals, robbing banks and stuff all throughout the West.”

Max winced. Even if Chloe had a reputation for exaggerating how dangerous David made people out to be, these rumors had somewhat solid ground. They had showed up with _guns_ strapped to them, and now they were looking for Rachel? “Do you believe him?”

“I mean, not all the time, but…” Chloe paused, sighed as she shook her head. “This time? Yeah. I believe it.”

“So then… why are we following them?”

“Look Max, do you want to know what’s happening or not?”

Letting out a huff of air, Max looked away from Chloe. She wanted to say yes, but at the same time, maybe it was better if she didn’t know. Maybe she was trying to mess too much with fate, and everything she was doing was just causing more and more chaos. “I don’t know,” Max finally said. “Sure, I guess.”

“Then that’s why we’re following them,” Chloe declared, gesturing vaguely to the Deadlock Gang in front of them. “To find out.”

They followed Ashe and McCree to outside of town, where they took the sole road out with a rented car. Somewhere far outside the city, they stopped, moving out on foot. Chloe said they had no choice – had to follow as well. The rolling hills and plains were a far cry from the landscape she knew growing up, and the path they had taken was far different from any route Max knew of to head to Houston. Even if she wanted to believe Rachel went to Corpus Christi, it didn’t make sense. Chloe and Max followed the outlaws as they headed down a lonely, dusty trail that scarcely even existed a road. Max couldn’t help but feel like they were going on a fool’s errand, confused as to why Ashe and McCree were even going down this way.

After what felt like ages of walking, the three stopped. Chloe and Max hid behind a tree, hoping that they hadn’t caught on to their ideas. They stood lazily around, as if scanning the horizon for clues. Had they lost the trail on Rachel or something? As she peeked out, Max felt like Ashe was staring right at them. Her eyes narrowed, and she put a hand on her hip, waving the other one towards her. “Come on out, y’all. We know you’re there.”

“How did she know?” Max hissed.

“Shut up, play it cool,” Chloe whispered.

A minute passed, until Max and Chloe heard the telltale sound of a gun being cocked. “We ain’t askin’ twice,” McCree called out.

Chloe sighed, shaking her head. “Alright, fine! We’re coming out!”

Reluctantly, she and Max stepped away from the tree, hands above their heads. These were dangerous criminals, outlaws if the rant that Chloe had told Max about was anything to go off of. What would they do to them?

“Mind telling us why you’re following us around?” Ashe said, frowning as she stared them down. “Oh my God, put your fucking hands down, we ain’t gonna shoot you.”

“Promise?” Max asked.

They said nothing in response, though Ashe nodded to McCree. This prompted him to lower the gun, but he still stared them with a glare in his eye. The big man in the back looked down on them, his nose high up as his mutton chops outlined his hard-set face, while Ashe just seemed to not even care about them.

“Look, we saw you guys go out here. I don’t know, maybe we thought it’d be fun,” Chloe said, nervously rubbing her arm.

“Yeah, I buy that out of _you,_ ” Ashe said, looking pointedly at Chloe. “Your friend here is too smart for that. She knows how to keep her mouth shut, don’t you?”

“I… I don’t know what you mean,” Max said. God, the anxiety was just overwhelming. Ashe stared at her with what felt like deadly intent, scowling as she scrutinized every part of Max’s face.

“I figured. I think you two know more than you’re letting on, otherwise you wouldn’t be out here following _us._ So, since you two wanna snoop around, how’s about a _deal._ You help us, maybe we help you.”

McCree glowered at Ashe, narrowing his eyes. “Ashe…”

“Stuff it, McCree,” Ashe ordered. “I wanna hear it out of you two. Help us find your _friend_ Rachel.”

Chloe sighed, glancing over at Max. There was a look of forlorn desperation of her face, something Max had never seen out of her before. “Only if you tell me what you want with her,” Chloe declared.

Ash smirked, shaking her head as she rolled her eyes. “Alright. That comptroller, Jefferson, he wants us to track her down, bring her back home to pay off some _debts_ she owes him. We want her because she screwed us over last year.”

“What? What do you mean last year?”

The large man cleared his throat, opening up a little notebook he kept in one of his vest’s pockets. He flicked through the pages, before jabbing his finger into the middle of it and dragging it across the paper. “ _Fräulein_ Amber assisted us with a job. She did not give up her pay.”

Before Max could even think, Chloe had produced a gun – from where, Max didn’t know – and held it to Ashe’s face, her grip shaky even as McCree and the big man drew guns of their own. In a flash, everyone had paused, with only Ashe and Max remaining unarmed. And then, in the blink of an eye, Max heard four gunshots – one from Chloe, two from McCree, and one from the big man. Time seemed to slow down as the bullets flew out, one hitting Ashe square in the head, while the others slammed into Chloe. Max stared wide-eyed, unable to stop them from slowly turning the guns on her.

* * *

“Chloe! Don’t do it!”

Chloe blinked, staring at Max like she had gone nuts. “Don’t do what?”

“I know you brought the gun, please don’t draw it on them!” Max pleaded. “We-we’ll help you find Rachel! Please just don’t shoot us!”

Understandably, Ashe, McCree, the big man, and Chloe all blinked, confused as to Max’s sudden outburst as well as how she even _knew_ about some of these things. After some explaining, which did involve Max relaying that there was an impossible dust storm rolling towards Arcadia Bay right now and that she had time manipulation abilities, most everything was resolved. Which, of course, now meant they had to set out to find Rachel Amber.

The heat was far stronger than Max expected, and even with water offered by Ashe and McCree, she could feel herself falling apart. Ashe told them that Jefferson had said Rachel was heading towards San Antonio, setting off with a horse and little more than the clothes on her back. The large man, who had been introduced as Bob, didn’t believe this story, and for what it was worth, Chloe and Max didn’t either. The plains were endless, and if they truly had to walk all the way to San Antonio, Max wasn’t sure she’d be able to save Arcadia Bay in time.

“ _Halt,_ ” Bob said, holding up a fist. He stopped, scanning the area as he and Ashe talked to each other in German. Eventually, Ashe told them that Bob thought he saw something. With the same ham-sized hands that he used to stop them, Bob began to dig a hole in the ground. Max and Chloe had to admit they didn’t know what Bob was doing, until stark white bone peeked out of the ground at them.

“Oh no,” Chloe said, dropping to her knees. “No, no no no no no no! Rachel, no, please!”

“Well, fuck,” McCree muttered, taking a long drag of his cigar.

Bob said something quietly in German, before turning back to them. “I believe zat we have found _Fräulein_ Amber.”

Ashe sighed, kicking a tumbleweed away. Her face was hard, clearly pissed that she hadn’t been able to deliver on both a job set up by Jefferson and for herself, but there was a softness to it that made Max feel somewhat comforted, even as she knelt down in the soil to comfort Chloe the best she could. Max had never seen Chloe this heartbroken before – her sobs echoed through the empty plains as she rocked back and forth, denying the very real images in front of her. It wasn’t possible, she claimed, this wasn’t right. But, the more that they uncovered and stared at Rachel’s bones, the more both she and the Deadlock Gang knew that it was entirely right.

After a while, Ashe cleared her throat, bringing Chloe and Max’s eyes to her. “Alright, so… I ain’t the best at this. I don’t think any of us got what we came out here for.”

“What _ever_ made you think that?!” Chloe demanded, still sobbing.

“We got another problem,” McCree said, gesturing to Arcadia Bay. “Looks like yer storm’s arrived.”

Max stood up, staring at the same wall of black dust that marched upon Arcadia Bay that she had seen in her dreams countless times. This was far too real. No amount of time manipulation could end this. The roaring of the dust storm could be heard even from where they were, miles outside of town. She could hear a siren wailing, probably some kind of vain signal to warn people about the oncoming chaos. “So… what do we do now?”

“Well, I don’t know about y’all,” Ashe said, shrugging. “But we’re heading to Austin. See y’all around.”

In a flash, Chloe had picked herself off the ground, dusting her clothes off. “Wait!” she pleaded, swallowing hard as the trio turned back to her. “I want to join you guys! In the Deadlock Gang.”

A dead silence hung in the air as Ashe, McCree and Bob stared at her. After a minute, McCree laughed loud and heartily, shaking his head. “That’s a damn good joke. Come on Ashe, let’s-”

“Alright.”

“What?” McCree asked, staring at Ashe like she had lost her mind.

“Wait, Chloe,” Max said, stepping in between her and the gang. When this all started, Chloe looked like she had at least _some_ hope left. But now… now all of that had passed. “What are you doing?”

Chloe sighed, her tears barely dry from mourning Rachel in the spam of five minutes. “Max, I… I can’t go back to Arcadia Bay. There’s nothing for me there. And… if we don’t stop this storm, I mean, you told me yourself. I get swept away with it. Who _knows_ what happens to me when that happens. I… these guys are a way out. It’s a chance I never got to take with Rachel.”

“So… then…”

“Yeah. Without Rachel there, with what you’ve been telling me about… I can’t do it. I can’t live there anymore. If I do, I think I’d rather kill myself. At least with Ashe and her gang, I _go_ somewhere. I can _do_ something.”

“Come on, kid,” Ashe said. “She’s made her choice. Let’s go, Chloe.”

Max paused, with Chloe slowly shuffling her way past her as she joined up with the Deadlock Gang. All at once, a flood of emotions went through Max’s head, trying to figure out how she could possible salvage this. Her nose began to bleed, and she found that with all her might, she couldn’t find a way to reverse time again. Either she headed back to an uncertain future in Arcadia Bay, now starting to be enveloped by the coming dust storm, or she could head to an equally unknown future with Ashe, Chloe, and the Deadlock Gang. Leave home, Mom and Dad, and Arcadia Bay behind forever, or go with the only friend she ever felt like she truly had.

With a heavy heart and even heavier steps, Max began following behind Chloe. They shared a final look towards Arcadia Bay as black dust overwhelmed the tiny coastal town, disappearing for what might possibly be forever. After that, they only set their eyes forward towards the sunset, listening to Ashe, McCree and Bob talk about their next “big score” that they had planned. The sirens began to fade out, replaced by a melancholy that mixed with a harmonica that McCree began to play to pass the time. His song was slow and joyless, and as he played Max dared to let her hand slip into Chloe’s. Even if they had lost Arcadia Bay, they still had each other.


End file.
